TRACKING RADAR

Tracking with Radar

Sequential Lobing
Conical Scan
Monopulse Tracking Radar
Amplitude Comparison Monopulse (One and two coordinate)
Phase Comparison Monopulse
Tracking in Range
Acquisition and Scanning Patterns
Comparison of Trackers
 Tracking With Radar
• Tracking is the process of continuously maintaining the antenna beam on the target
and also the echo signal within the range gate.
• The radar which detects target and determines location as well as predict its
trajectory path as well as its future coordinates is known as tracking radar.
• Based on the measured coordinates error signal will be generated.
• Antenna should be moved based on error signal to maintain the target within the
beam.
• Use pencil beam
• The figure below mentions block diagram of simple tracking radar.
• As shown tracking operation in the radar depends upon angular information. very
narrow antenna beam is used here which will track one target object at one time.
This can be performed using range gating and doppler filtering module.
• Range tracking is carried out using timing control unit. Doppler tracking is carried
out using Doppler gating unit.

• The angle error signal is provided as input for servo motor based control system.
This servo system will steer the antenna as per error input and hence will track the
target.
• The various methods for generating the error signal are classified as sequential
lobing, conical scan, and simultaneous lobing or Monopulse.
• The data available from a tracking radar may be presented on a cathode-ray-tube
(CRT) display
 Tracking Radar Types

Following are the types of tracking radar:

• STT Radar (Single Target Tracking Radar)
• ADT Radar (Automatic Detection and Tracking Radar)
• TWS Radar (Track While Scan Radar)
• Phased Array Tracking Radar
• Monopulse Tracking Radar

STT Radar (Single Target Tracking Radar)

• Tracks a single target at fast data

• High Data rate – 10 obs/sec.
• Employs a closed loop servo system to keep the error signal small.
• Application – tracking of aircraft/missile targets

ADT Radar (Automatic Detection and Tracking Radar)

• This Tracking is preferred in air surveillance tracking radar.

• Lower data rate than STT.

• Can track hundreds/ a few thousand targets simultaneously.

• Tracking is open loop i.e antenna position is not controlled by data processing.

TWS Radar (Track While Scan Radar)

• This rapidly scans a limited angular sector to maintain tracks with a moderate data
rate on more than one target within the coverage of antenna (another name for
ADT).
• Scans a limited angular sector to maintain tracks – simultaneous track & search
• Data rate : moderate
• Can track a number of targets.
• Equivalent of track while scan is ADT
• TWS systems are used for air-defense radars, air craft landing radars and in
air borne intercept radars to track multiple objects
Phased Array Tracking Radar
• A large number of targets can be held in track

• This is done on time sharing basis

• Beam is electronically switched from one angular position to another in a few

microseconds.

• It combines the rapid update rate of a single target tracker with the ability of ADT
to hold many targets in track

• High data rate (like in STT)

• The cost is very very high.

• These radars are used in air defense weapon systems.

Angle Tracking
• When a target is approaching, the antenna is to be moved continuously to track the
target
• To determine the direction in which the antenna beam needs to be moved, a
measurement has to be made at two different beam positions.
• Below figure shows the basic principle of continuous angle tracking
 • Two overlapping antenna patterns that crossover at the boresight direction
• A target is located in this example to the right of the boresight at an angle

• The amplitude of the target echo in beam B is larger than the amplitude
in the beam A

• Which indicates that the two beams should moved to the right to bring the target to
the boresight position.

• If you want to track the target the boresight is always maintained in the direction of
the target.

Methods to extract error signal may be classified as

• Sequential lobing
1. Time shares a single beam
• Conical scan 2. Antenna beam is switched between two positions
• Simultaneous lobing or monopulse

1. More than one simultaneous beam is used

for tracking
2. Usually 4 simultaneous beams used for 2-
dimensional tracking

Single beam on time sharing basis. Multiple beam.

Sequential lobing Radar and Conical scan Simultaneous lobing or monopulse Radar]
Radar

Simpler Complex

One antenna Multiple antennas

Less equipment More equipments

Not accurate Accurate

No of pulses are required to extract the Single pulse is used to determine the angular
error signal error.
 Sequential Lobing
• The antenna pattern commonly employed with tracking radars is the symmetrical
pencil beam in which the, elevation and azimuth beam widths are approximately
equal.

• Actually the difference between the target position and the reference direction is
the angular error.

• The tracking radar attempts to position the antenna to make the angular error zero.
When the angular error is zero, the target is located along the reference direction.

• One method of obtaining the direction and the magnitude of the angular error in
one coordinate is switching the single antenna beam between two squinted
angular positions. This is called as lobe switching, sequential switching or
sequential lobing.

• The error signal is obtained from a target not on the switching axis.

• The direction in which to move the beam to bring the target on boresight is
found by observing which beam position has the larger signal.
Fig 1-a is a polar representation of the antenna beam (minus the side lobes) in the two switched
positions. A plot in rectangular coordinates is shown in Fig.1-b, and the error signal obtained
from a target not on the switching axis (reference direction) is shown in Fig.1-c.

• When the echo signals in the two beam positions are equal, the target is n axis and
its direction is that of the switching axis.

• If orthogonal angle information is needed, two more switching positions are

needed.

• So, two dimensional sequentially lobing radar might consists of four feed horns
illuminating a single reflector antenna.

• An improvement over this can be a single squinted feed which could be rotated
continuously to obtain angle measurements in two coordinates . This results in
conical scan.

• One of the limitations of a simple unswitched non-scanning pencil-beam antenna is

that the angle accuracy can be no better than the size of the antenna beam width.

• An important feature of sequential lobing (as well as the other tracking techniques
to be discussed) is that the target-position accuracy can be far better than that given
by the antenna beam width.
 Conical Scan

• The angle between the axis of rotation and the axis of the antenna beam is called the
Squint Angle.

• Consider a target at position A.

• The echo signal amplitude will be modulated at a frequency equal to the rotation
frequency of the beam.

• The amplitude of the echo signal modulation will depend upon the shape of the antenna
pattern, the squint angle and the angle between the target line of sight & the rotation
axis. This amplitude of the echo signal will be modulated ata frequency equal to the
beam rotation frequency (conical Scan frequency).

• The phase of the modulation depends on the angle between the target and the rotation
axis.

• The conical scan modulation is extracted from the echo signal and applied to a servo-
control system which continually positions the antenna rotation axis in the direction of
the target. [Note that two servos are required because the tracking is required in two-
dimensions.

• When the antenna is on target, as in B of Fig. 2, the line of sight to the target and the
rotation axis coincide, and the conical-scan modulation is zero.

• Two servo motors are required, one for azimuth and the other for elevation
 Block diagram of conical scan tracking radar

• The antenna is mounted so that it can be positioned in both azimuth and elevation
by separate m
• Redirection of beam i) Rotating feed ii) Nutating feed.
• When the feed is designed to maintain the plane of polarization as it rotates about
the axis, it is called ‘ nutating feed’.
• A rotating feed is one which causes the plane of polarization to rotate.
• The nutating feed is preferred over the rotating feed since a rotating polarization
can cause the amplitude of the target echo signal to change with time even for a
stationary target on axis.
• A change in amplitude caused by a modulated echo signal can result in degraded
angle tracking accuracy.
• The nutating feed is more complicated than the rotating feed.
• A typical conical scan rotation speed might be in the vicinity of 30 rev/sec.
• The same motor that provides the conical-scan rotation of the antenna beam also
drives a two-phase reference generator with two sinusoidal outputs 900 apart in
phase.
 • These two outputs serve as a reference to extract the elevation and azimuth errors.
• The received echo signal is fed to the receiver from the antenna via two rotary
joints (not shown in the block diagram). One rotary joint permits motion in
azimuth; the other, in elevation.
• The receiver is conventional super heterodyne except for features related to the
conical scan tracking.
• The error signal is extracted in the video after the second detector.
• Range gating eliminates noise and excludes other targets.
• The error signal from the range gate is compared with both the elevation and
azimuth reference signals in the angle error detectors.
• The angle error outputs are amplified and used to drive the antenna elevation and
azimuth servo motors.
• The video signal is a pulse train modulated by the conical scan frequency.
• It is usually convenient to stretch the pulses before low pass filtering so as to
increase the energy at the conical scan frequency to perform A/D conversion.
• This pulse stretching is accomplished by a sample-and hold circuit which also
known as boxcar generator.

Fig 4: (a) Pulse train with conical scan modulation (b)same pulse train after passing through
boxcar generator.(stretching by a sample and hold circuit)

• PRF must be sufficiently large compared to conical scan frequency for proper
filtering and avoiding inaccuracy of the angle measurement.
• The PRF must be atleast four times of conical scan frequency but normally 10
times.
Automatic Gain Control (AGC) :

• The echo-signal amplitude at the tracking-radar receiver will not be constant but
will vary with time. The three major causes of variation in amplitude are:
– The inverse-fourth-power relationship between the echo signal and range
– The conical scan modulation (angle-error signal) and
– Amplitude fluctuations in the target cross Section.
• The function of the automatic gain control (AGC) is to maintain the d-c level of
the receiver output constant and to smooth or eliminate as much of the noise like
amplitude fluctuations as possible without disturbing the extraction of the desired
error signal at the conical-scan frequency.
• AGC is also important for avoiding saturation by large signals which could cause
the loss of the scanning modulation and the accompanying error signal.
An example of the AGC portion of a tracking-radar receiver is shown in Fig
• A portion of the video-amplifier output is passed through a low-pass or smoothing
filter and fed back to control the gain of the IF amplifier.
• The larger the video output, the larger will be the feedback signal and the
greater will be the gain reduction.

Figure: Block diagram of the AGC portion of a tracking-radar receiver

• The filter in the AGC loop should pass all frequencies from direct current to just
below
the conical-scan-modulation frequency.
• The loop gain of the AGC filter measured at the conical-scan frequency should be
low
so that the error signal will not be affected by AGC action.
• The phase shift of this filter must be small if its phase characteristic is not to
influence
the error signal.
• A phase change of the error signal is equivalent to a rotation of the reference
axes and introduces cross coupling, or "cross talk," between the elevation and azimuth
angle- tracking loops.
 • Cross talk affects the stability of the tracking and might result in an unwanted
nutating motion of the antenna.

• In conventional tracking radar applications, the phase change introduced by the

feedback-loop filter should be less than 100 and in some applications, it should be
as little as 20.

• For this reason, a filter with a sharp attenuation characteristic in the vicinity of
the conical-scan frequency might not be desirable because of the relatively large
amount of phase shift which it would introduce.

Other considerations:
• In both the sequential-lobing and conical-scan techniques, the measurement of the
angle error in two orthogonal coordinates (azimuth and elevation) requires that a
minimum of three pulses be processed.
• In practice, however, the minimum number of pulses in sequential lobing is usually
four-one per quadrant. Although a conical scan radar can also be operated with
only four pulses per revolution, it is more usual to have ten or more per revolution.
This allows the modulation due to the angle error to be more that of a continuous
sine wave.
• Thus, the PRF is usually at least an order of magnitude greater than the conical-
scan frequency.
• The scan frequency also must be at least an order of magnitude greater than the
tracking bandwidth.
• A conical-scan-on-receive-only (COSRO) tracking radar radiates a non-scanning
transmit beam, but receives with a conical scanning beam to extract the angle
error. The analogous operation with sequential lobing is called lobe-on-receive-
only (LORO).
 DISADVANTAGES

Sequential lobing
• Angle accuracy can be no better than the size of the antenna beamwidth.
• Variation in echo strength on a pulse-by-pulse basis changes the signal level thereby
reducing tracking accuracy
• The antenna gain is less than the peak gain in beam axis direction, reducing
maximum range that can be measured
Conical scan
• The antenna scan rate is limited by the scanning mechanism (mechanical
or electronic)
• Sensitive to target modulation
• Mechanical vibration and wear and tear due to rotating feed
• It creates confusion by rapid changes in signal strength

MONOPULSE TRACKING RADAR

• Pulse-to-pulse amplitude fluctuations of the echo signal have no effect on tracking
accuracy if the angular measurement is made on the basis of one pulse rather than
many.
• There are several methods by which angle-error information might be obtained with
only a single pulse.
• More than one antenna beam is used simultaneously in these methods, in contrast to
the conical-scan or lobe-switching tracker, which utilizes one antenna beam on a
time-shared basis.
• The angle of arrival of the echo signal may be determined in a single-pulse system
by measuring the relative phase or the relative amplitude of the echo pulse received
in each beam.
• The names simultaneous lobing and monopulse are used to describe those
tracking techniques which derive angle-error information on the basis of a single
pulse.
• Most popular monopulse is – Amplitude Comparison Monopulse
 Amplitude Comparison Monopulse

Figure: Monopulse antenna patterns and error signal. Left-hand diagrams in (a-c) are in
polar coordinates. Right-hand diagrams are in rectangular coordinates. (a)
Overlapping antenna patterns (b) sum pattern (c) difference pattern (d) product
(error) signal.

• In this technique, the RF signals received from two offset antenna beams are
combined so that both the sum and the difference signals are obtained
simultaneously.
• The sum and difference signals are multiplied in a phase-sensitive detector to
obtain both the magnitude and the direction of the error signal.
• All the information necessary to determine the angular error is obtained on the
basis of a single pulse; hence the name monopulse.
• The amplitude-comparison monopulse employs two overlapping antenna patterns
to obtain the angular error in one coordinate.
• The sum of the two antenna patterns of Fig (a) is shown in Fig (b), and the
difference in Fig(c).
• The sum pattern is used for transmission, while both the sum pattern and the
difference pattern are used on reception.
• The signal received with the difference pattern provides the magnitude of the
angle error.
• The sum signal provides the range measurement and is also used as a reference to
extract the sign of the error signal.
• Signals received from the sum and the difference patterns are amplified separately
and combined in a phase-sensitive detector to produce the error-signal
characteristic shown in Fig (d).
Phase-sensitive detector
• The system contains a phase sensitive detector that compares two signals of
the same frequency.
• It is a nonlinear device
• The output indicates the direction of the angle error relative to the
boresight.
• Though phase comparison is done, the magnitude of the angle error signal
is determined by comparison of amplitude signals.

Amplitude-comparison monopulse (One angular coordinate )

• A block diagram of the amplitude-comparison-monopulse tracking radar for a
single angular coordinate is shown in below Fig.

Hybrid junctions
 • The two adjacent antenna feeds are connected to the two arms of a hybrid junction
such as a "magic T, a "rat race," or a “short-slot coupler”.

• The sum and difference signals appear at the two other arms of the hybrid. On
reception, the outputs of the sum arm and the difference arm are each heterodyned
to an intermediate frequency and amplified as, in any super heterodyne receiver.

• The transmitter is connected to the sum arm. Range information is also extracted
from the sum channel.

• A duplexer is included in the sum arm for the protection of the receiver.

• The output of the phase-sensitive detector is an error signal whose magnitude is

proportional to the angular error and whose sign is proportional to the direction.

• The output of the monopulse radar is used to perform automatic tracking.

• The angular error signal actuates a servo-control system to position the antenna, and
the range output from the sum channel feeds into an automatic-range-tracking unit.

• The sign of the difference signal (and the direction of the angular error) is
determined by comparing the phase of the difference signal with the phase of the
sum signal.

• If the sum signal in the IF portion of the receiver were AS cos (ωIFt) the difference
signal would be either Ad cos (ωIFt) or– Ad cos (ωIFt) (As>0, Ad>O), depending on
which side of center is the target.

• Since – Ad cos (ωIFt) = Ad cos ωIF(t+π), the sign of the difference signal may be
measured by determining whether the difference signal is in phase with the sum or
1800 out of phase.

• The purpose of the phase-sensitive detector is only to conveniently furnish the sign
of the error signal.
 Amplitude-comparison monopulse
(Two angular Coordinate )

• A block diagram of a monopulse radar with provision for extracting error signals in
both elevation and azimuth is shown in above Fig
• The cluster of four feeds generates four partial overlapping antenna beams. The
feeds might be used with a parabolic reflector, Cassegrain antenna, or a lens.
• All four feeds generate the sum pattern. The difference pattern in one plane is
formed by taking the sum of two adjacent feeds and subtracting this from the sum
of the other two adjacent feeds.
• The difference pattern in the orthogonal plane is obtained by adding the differences
of the orthogonal adjacent pairs.
• A total of four hybrid junctions generate the sum channel, the azimuth difference
channel, and the elevation difference channel.
• Three separate mixers and IF amplifiers are shown, one for each channel.
• All three mixers operate from a single local oscillator in order to maintain the phase
relationships between the three channels.
• Two phase-sensitive detectors extract the angle-error information, one for azimuth,
the other for elevation.
• Range information is extracted from the output of the sum channel after amplitude
detection.
 • An alternative approach to using three identical amplifiers in the monopulse
receiver is to use only one IF channel which amplifies the sum signal and the two
difference signals on a time-shared basis.

• The sum signal is passed through the single IF amplifier followed by the two
difference signals delayed in time by a suitable amount.

• Automatic gain control (AGC) is required in order to maintain a stable closed-loop

servo system for angle tracking and to insure that angle error signal is not affected
by changes in the received signal amplitude.

• The AGC results in a constant angle sensitivity independent of target size and
range.

• With AGC the output of the angle-error detector is proportional to the difference
signal normalized (divided) by the sum signal. The output of the sum channel is
constant.
[SUM PATTERN : A+B +C +D
AZIMUTH DIFF. PATTERN : (A+B) – (C +D)
ELEVATION DIFF. PATTERN : (B+D) – (A+C)]

Important Requirements of Amplitude-comparison monopulse

• The monopulse antenna must generate a sum pattern with high efficiency
(maximum boresight gain), and a difference pattern with a large value of slope at
the crossover of the offset beams.

• The greater the signal-to-noise ratio and the steeper the slope of the error signal
in the vicinity of zero angular error, the more accurate is the measurement of
angle.

• Furthermore, the side lobes of both the sum and the difference patterns must be low.

• The antenna must be capable of the desired bandwidth, and the patterns must have
the desired polarization characteristics.
 Phase comparison Monopulse
• The tracking techniques discussed thus far in this chapter are based on the
comparison of the amplitude of echo signals received from two or more antenna
positions.
• The sequential-lobing and conical-scan techniques used a single, time-shared
antenna beam while the Monopulse technique used two or more simultaneous
beams.
• The difference in amplitudes in the several antenna positions is proportional to the
angular error.
• A tracking radar which operates with phase information is similar to an active
interferometer and is also called interferometer radar. It has also been called
simultaneous phase comparison radar or phase-comparison Monopulse.
• Phase comparison monopulse uses two antenna beams to obtain an angle
measurement in one coordinate. But the two beams cover the same region of space.
• Here the two beams look in the same direction whereas in earlier case they
looked at slightly different directions

Wave front phase relationships in

phase comparison Monopulse
Radar
• In above Fig two antennas are shown separated by a distance d.
• The distance to the target is R and is assumed large compared with the antenna
separation d.
• The line of sight to the target makes an angle θ to the perpendicular bisector of the
line joining the two antennas.
• The distance from antenna 1 to the target is:
R1 = R + (d/2 ) sin θ
and the distance from antenna 2 to the target is:
R2 = R - (d/2 ) sin θ
• The phase difference between the echo signals in the two antennas is
approximately:
ΔØ = (2π/λ) .d. Sin θ

For small angles where sin θ ≈ θ, the phase difference is a linear function of the
angular error and may be used to position the antenna via a servo-control loop.

Block diagram of a phase comparison monopulse radar (one angle coordinate).

Limitations
• .Effect of grating lobes due to wide separation between the antennas
• Ambiguities in the angle measurement
• To overcome these problems, a portion of the parabolic reflectors is sliced
off to achieve this.
Important points to remember in amplitude and phase comparison monopulse

• A total of four hybrid junctions generate sum, azimuth and elevation difference
channel
• Range information is extracted form the output of the sum channel after amplitude
detection
• The angular error signal is obtained by comparing echo amplitudes which actuates a
servo mechanism to position the antenna.
• The angle of arrival is determined by comparing the phase difference between
signals from two separate antennas
• Antennas of phase comparison are not offset from the axis

Limitations to Tracking Accuracy

Major effects that determine the accuracy of a tracking radar:

• Glint or angle noise or angular scintillation: which affects all tracking radars
especially at short range. The greater the target in angle, the greater is the glint
error.
• Receiver noise: affects all radars and mainly determines tracking accuracy at long
range.
• RCS or Amplitude fluctuations of the target echo that bother conical scan and
sequential lobing trackers but not monopulse.
• Servo noise
• Antenna Beamwidth
• Atmospheric effects
 Tracking in range
• In the early days o radar, tracking of target in range was usually done manually by
an operator who watched an A-scope or similar presentation and positioned a
handwheel to maintain a marker on the display over desired target pip.
• The setting of the handwheel was a measure of the target range and was converted
to an electrical signal and supplied to a data processor.
• Manually tracking has many limitations and it cannot be used in systems such as
missiles where there is no operator present.
• It was soon replaced by closed loop automatic tracking, such as split gate tracker.
• Split gate tracker uses two split range gates called early gate and late gate.
• The echo pulse is shown in Fig.a, the relative position of the gates at a particular
instant shown in Fig.b, and the error signal shown in Fig c.
• The portion of the signal energy contained in the early gate is less than that in the
late gate.
• If the outputs of the two gates are subtracted, an error signal shown in fig c will
result which is used to reposition the center of the gates.

Figure : Split-range-gate tracking.(a)Echo pulse (b)early-late range gates(c) difference signal

between early and late range gates
 • The magnitude of the error signal is a measure of the difference between the center
of the pulse and the center of the gates.
• The sign of the error signal determines the direction in which the gates must be
repositioned by a feedback-control system.
• When the error signal is zero the range gates are centered on the pulse.
• The range gating necessary to perform automatic tracking in Range offers several
advantages as by products.
• It isolates one target, excluding targets at other ranges. This permits the boxcar
generator to be employed.
• Also, range gating improves the signal-to-noise ratio since it eliminates the noise
from the other range intervals. Hence the width of the gate should be sufficiently
narrow to minimize extraneous noise.
• A reasonable compromise is to make the gate width two to five times of the pulse
width.

Acquisition and Scanning Patterns

• A tracking radar must first find and acquire its target before it can operate as a
tracker.

• Most tracking radars employ a narrow pencil beam for accurate tracking in angle;
but it can be difficult to search a large volume targets when using a narrow
antenna beamwidth.

• Search must be done with care to cover the entire volume uniformly and efficiently.

• Some other radar, therefore must first find the target to be tracked and then
designated the target’s coordinates to the tracker. These radars have been called
acquisition radars or designation radars that search a large volume.

Types of Scanning Patterns

The purpose of using scanning antenna is to find the direction of the target
with respect to the transmitter. The direction of the antenna at the instance when
echo is received, gives the direction of location of the target.
 Examples of acquisition search patterns: (a) Trace of helical scanning beam (b) Palmer scan
(c) spiral scan( d) raster, or TV, scan (e) nodding scan. The raster scan is sometimes called an
n-bar scan, where n is the number of horizontal rows.

a) Helical Scanning
• Helical scanning covers a hemisphere.

• In the helical scan, the antenna is continuously rotated in azimuth while it is

simultaneously raised or lowered in elevation.

• It’s typical speed of rotation is 6rpm along with a rise of 20% and was utilized in
world war II for anti-aircraft gun batteries as fire controlled radar.

b) Palmer Scan
• The Palmer scan consists of a rapid circular scan (conical scan) about the axis of
the antenna, combined with a linear movement of the axis of rotation.

• When the axis of rotation is held stationary the Palmer scan reduces to the conical
scan.

• Because of this feature the palmer scan is used with conical scan tracking radars
which must operate in both search and track mode.
c) Spiral Scan
• The spiral scan covers an angular search volume with circular symmetry.
• Both the spiral scan and the Palmer scan suffer from the disadvantage that all parts
of the scan volume do not receive the same energy unless the scanning speed is
varied during the scan cycle.
• As a consequence, the number of hits returned from a target when searching with a
constant scanning rate depends upon the position of the target within the search
area.
d) Raster Scan
• The raster or TV, scan, unlike the Palmer or the spiral scan, scans the search area
in a uniform manner.
• The raster scan is a simple and convenient means for searching a limited sector,
rectangular in shape.
e) Nodding Scan
• The antenna is moved rapidly in elevation while it rotates slowly in azimuth thus
scanning in both planes.
• The pattern covers the complete hemisphere i.e. elevation angle extending to
900and the azimuth scan angle to 3600
• Used in height finding radars

Comparison of Trackers
• Of the four continuous-tracking-radar techniques that have been discussed
(sequential lobing, conical scan, amplitude-comparison monopulse, and phase-
comparison monopulse), conical scan and amplitude-comparison monopulse have
seen more application than the other two.
• In phase comparison four antennas are placed in awkward direction and its side
lobe levels are higher than desired.
• Sequential lobing suffers more losses with complex antenna and feed system
• Amplitude comparison has high SNR
• It has higher precision in target tracking due to the absence of target amplitude
fluctuations
• Angle error in two coordinates can be obtained by a single pulse
• Conical scan integrates no of pulses and then extracts angle measurement but vice
versa in monopulse.
SNR
• The SNR from a monopulse radar is greater than that from a conical scan since it
views target at the peak of sum pattern.
• SNR is 2 to 4 db greater.
Accuracy
• Due to high SNR, the range accuracy is also high in monopulse.
• The accuracy is not affected by fluctuations in the amplitude of the echo signal.
• Both systems are degraded by the wandering of the apparent position of the a
target caused by glint.
Complexity
• Monopulse is more complex of the two.
• Conical scan has to rotate or nutate the beam at high speed.
• The cassegrain is a popular choice for monopulse
• A space fed phased array can implement monopulse by using a multiple feed
similar to cassegrain.

Min No. of Pulses

• A monopulse can perform on the basis of a single pulse. For a phased array one
pulse is sufficient
• The conical scan tracker requires a minimum no. of four pulses per revolution of
beam to extract an angle measurement in two coordinates.
• The monopulse first makes its angle measurement and then integrates a no. of
measurements to obtain the required SNR.
• The conical scan integrates a no. of pulses first and then extracts the angle
measurement.
Susceptibility to ECM
• Conical scan tracker is more vulnerable to spoofing that takes advantage of its
conical scan frequency
• It can also suffer from deliberate amplitude fluctuations.
• A well designed monopulse is hard to deceive.
Application
• Monopulse trackers should be used when good angle accuracy is needed.
• When high performance tracking is not necessary, the conical scan tracker might be
used for its low cost.
 Comparison of Monopulse Tracking and Conical Scan Tracking

Monopulse Tracking Conical Scan Tracking

Multiple beams are used to determine the A single antenna beam on a time shared
angle of arrival of the echo signal basis is used
Signle pulse is required to derive angle Multiple pulses are required
error information
High SNR Low SNR

More acuurate tracking Less accurate tracking

Complex Design Simple Design

Cassegrain antenna is used Horn antenna is used

High cost Low cost

The Search radar is usually less precise and only distinguishes between
targets that are hundreds of yards or even miles apart. Radar resolution is usually
divided into two categories viz. range resolution and angular resolution (i.e. bearing
resolution).
• Distance coverage: Long, medium, short ranges (20 km to 2000 km)
• High power density on the target: high peak power, long pulses, long pulse trains,
high antenna gain
• Low PRFs
Search options: rapid search rate with narrow beams or slower search rate with
wide beams
Tracking Radar
The Tracking radar continuously emits the EM waves in the air and detects the
targetted object when it comes in the path of the waves.
• Accurate angle and range measurement required

Minimize time on target for rapid processing

Special tracking techniques: monopulse, conical scan, beam switching

 DETECTION OF RADAR SIGNALS
IN NOISE

Introduction

Matched filter receiver

Response characteristics and derivation

Correlation function and cross correlation receiver

Efficiency of Non-matched filters

Matched filter with non-white noise

 • The two basic operations performed by radar are ( 1) detection of the presence of
reflecting objects, and (2) extraction of information from the received waveform to
obtain such target data as position, velocity, and perhaps size.
• In this chapter some aspects of the problem of detecting radar signals in the
presence of noise will be considered. Noise ultimately limits the capability of any
radar.
Matched-Filter Receiver
• A network whose frequency-response function maximizes the output peak-signal-
to- mean-noise (power) ratio is called a matched filter. This criterion, or its
equivalent, is used for the design of almost all radar receivers.
• The frequency-response function, denoted H(f), expresses the relative amplitude
and phase of the output of a network with respect to the input when the input is a
pure sinusoid.
• The magnitude |H(f)|of the frequency-response function is the receiver amplitude
pass band characteristic.
• If the bandwidth of the receiver pass band is wide compared with that occupied by
the signal energy, extraneous noise is introduced by the excess bandwidth which
lowers the output signal-to-noise ratio. On the other hand, if the receiver bandwidth
is narrower than the bandwidth occupied by the signal, the noise energy is reduced
along with a considerable part of the signal energy.

• The net result is again a lowered signal-to-noise ratio. Thus there is an optimum
bandwidth at which the signal-to-noise ratio is a maximum. This is well known to
the radar receiver designer.
• The rule of thumb quoted in pulse radar practice is that the receiver bandwidth B
should be approximately equal to the reciprocal of the pulse width τ. This is a
reasonable approximation for pulse radars with conventional superheterodyne
receivers. It is not generally valid for other waveforms.
• The exact specification of the optimum receiver characteristic involves the
frequency- response function and the shape of the received waveform.
• The receiver frequency-response function, is assumed to apply from the antenna
terminals to the output of the IF amplifier.
• The second detector and video portion of the well designed radar superheterodyne
receiver will have negligible effect on the output signal-to- noise ratio if the
receiver is designed as a matched filter. Narrow banding is most conveniently
accomplished in the IF.
• The bandwidths of the RF and mixer stages of the normal superheterodyne receiver
are usually large compared with the IF bandwidth. Therefore the frequency-
response function of the portion of the receiver included between the antenna
terminals to the output of the IF amplifier is taken to be that of the IF amplifier
alone.
• Thus we need only obtain the frequency-response function that maximizes the
signal-to-noise ratio at the output of the IF. The IF amplifier may be considered as a
filter with gain.

• For a received waveform s(t) with a given ratio of signal energy E to noise energy
No (or noise power per hertz of bandwidth), North showed that the frequency-
response function of the linear, time-invariant filter which maximizes the output
peak-signal-to-mean- noise (power) ratio for a fixed input signal-to-noise (energy)
ratio is

• The noise that accompanies the signal is assumed to be stationary and to have a
uniform spectrum (white noise). It need not be Gaussian.

• The filter whose frequency-response function is given by Eq. above has been called
the North filter, the conjugate filter, or more usually the matched filter. It has also
been called the Fourier transform criterion.

• The frequency-response function of the matched filter is the conjugate of the

spectrum of the received waveform except for the phase shift exp (- j2Πft1). This
phase shift varies uniformly with frequency. Its effect is to cause a constant time
delay.
• The frequency spectrum of the received signal may be written as an amplitude
spectrum |S(f)|and a phase spectrum exp [- jφs (f )].
• The matched- filter frequency-response function may similarly be written in terms
of its amplitude and phase spectra |H(f)| and exp [- jφm(f)]. Ignoring the constant
Ga, Eq. above for the matched filter may then be written as

• Thus the amplitude spectrum of the matched filter is the same as the amplitude
spectrum of the signal, but the phase spectrum of the matched filter is the negative
of the phase spectrum of the signal plus a phase shift proportional to frequency.
• The matched filter may also be specified by its impulse response h(t), which is the
inverse Fourier transform of the frequency-response function.

• Physically, the impulse response is the output of the filter as a function of time
when the input is an impulse (delta function).

• A rather interesting result is that the impulse response of the matched filter is the
image of the received waveform; that is, it is the same as the received signal run
backward in time starting from the fixed time t1.
• Figure 1 shows a received waveform s(t) and the impulse response h(t) of its
matched filter. The impulse response of the filter, if it is to be realizable, is not
defined for t< 0. (One cannot have any response before the impulse is applied.)
Therefore we must always have t < t1.

• This is equivalent to the condition placed on the transfer function H(f) that there be
a phase shift exp (-j2Πft1). However, for the sake of convenience, the impulse
response of the matched filter is sometimes written simply as s(- t).

Fig.1 (a) Received waveform s(t); (b) impulse response h(t) of the matched filter.
 Derivation of the matched-filter characteristic
• The frequency-response function of the matched filter has been derived by a
number of authors using either the calculus of variations or the Schwartz inequality.
We shall derive the matched-filter frequency-response function using the Schwartz
inequality.
• We wish to show that the frequency-response function of the linear, time-invariant
filter which maximizes the output peak-signal-to-mean-noise ratio is

• When the input noise is stationary and white (uniform spectral density). The ratio
we wish to maximize is

• Where |so(t)| max = maximum value of output signal voltage and N = mean noise
power at receiver output. The ratio Rf is not quite the same as the signal-to-noise
ratio which has been considered in the radar equation.

• The output voltage of a filter with frequency-response function H(f) is

• Where S(f) is the Fourier transform of the input (received) signal. The mean output
noise power is

• Where No is the input noise power per unit bandwidth. The factor appears before
the integral because the limits extend from - ∞ to +∞, whereas No is defined as the
noise power per cycle of bandwidth over positive values only. Assuming that the
maximum value of |so(t)2| occurs at time t = t1, the ratio Rf becomes

Schwartz's inequality states that if P and Q are two complex functions, then
• The equality sign applies when P = kQ, where k is a constant. Letting

• We get, on applying the Schwartz inequality to the numerator of Eq. earlier, we get

• The frequency-response function which maximizes the peak-signal-to-mean-noise

ratio Rf may be obtained by noting that the equality sign in Eq. applies when P =
kQ, or

Where the constant k has been set equal to 1/Ga.

 The matched filter and the correlation
function
• The output of the matched filter may be shown to be proportional to the input signal
cross-correlated with a replica of the transmitted signal, except for the time delay
t1.
• The cross correlation function R(t) of two signals y(λ) and s(λ), each of finite
duration, is defined as

• The output yo(t) of a filter with impulse response h(t) when the input is yin(t) = s(t) + n(t) is

• If the filter is a matched filter, then h(λ) = s(t1 - λ) and Eq. above becomes

• Thus the matched filter forms the cross correlation between the received signal
corrupted by noise and a replica of the transmitted signal.

• The replica of the transmitted signal is "built in" to the matched filter via the
frequency-response function.

• If the input signal yin (t) were the same as the signal s(t) for which the matched
filter was designed (that is, the noise is assumed negligible), the output would be
the autocorrelation function.
Cross correlation receiver(correlation detection)

• Equation above describes the output of the matched filter as the cross correlation
between the input signal and a delayed replica of the transmitted signal.
• This implies that the matched-filter receiver can be replaced by a cross-correlation
receiver that performs the same mathematical operation as shown in Fig.

Fig: Block diagram of a cross-correlation receiver

• The input signal y (t) is multiplied by a delayed replica of the transmitted signal
s(t - Tr), and the product is passed through a low-pass filter to perform the
integration.

• The cross-correlation receiver of above Fig tests for the presence of a target at only
a single time delay Tr. Targets at other time delays, or ranges, might be found by
varying Tr. However, this requires a longer search time.

• The cross-correlation receiver and the matched-filter receiver are equivalent

mathematically, the choice as to which one to use in a particular radar application is
determined by which is more practical to implement.

• The matched-filter receiver, or an approximation, has been generally preferred in

the vast majority of applications.
 Efficiency of non-matched filters
• In practice the matched filter cannot always be obtained exactly. It is appropriate,
therefore, to examine the efficiency of non matched filters compared with the ideal
matched filter.

• The measure of efficiency is taken as the peak signal-to-noise ratio from the non
matched filter divided by the peak signal-to-noise ratio (2E/No) from the matched
filter.

• Figure. Plots the efficiency for a single-tuned (RLC) resonant filter and a
rectangular-shaped filter of half-power bandwidth B τ when the input is a rectangular
pulse of width τ

• The maximum efficiency of the single-tuned filter occurs for B τ ≈ 0.4. The
corresponding loss in signal-to-noise ratio is 0.88 dB as compared with a matched
filter. .
• Table lists the values of Bτ which maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for
various combinations of filters and pulse shapes. It can be seen that the loss in SNR
incurred by use of these non-matched filters is small.

Table: Efficiency of nonmatched filters compared with the matched filter

Matched filter with nonwhite noise

• In the derivation of the matched-filter characteristic, the spectrum of the noise
accompanying the signal was assumed to be white; that is, it was independent of
frequency.
• If this assumption were not true, the filter which maximizes the output signal-to-
noise ratio would not be the same as the matched filter.
• It has been shown that if the input power spectrum of the interfering noise is given
by [Ni(f)]2, the frequency-response function of the filter which maximizes the
output signal-to-noise ratio is

• When the noise is nonwhite, the filter which maximizes the output signal-to-noise
ratio is called the NWN (nonwhite noise) matched filter.
• For white noise [Ni(f)]2 = constant and the NWN matched-filler frequency-
response function of Eq. above reduces to that of Eq. discussed earlier in white
noise. Equation above can be written as

• This indicates that the NWN matched filter can be considered as the cascade of
two filters.

• The first filter, with frequency-response function l/Ni (f), acts to make the noise
spectrum uniform, or white. It is sometimes called the whitening filter.

• The second is the matched filter when the input is white noise and a signal whose
spectrum is S(f )/Ni(f ).
 RADAR RECEIVERS

Noise figure and Noise

Temperature Displays-Types

Duplexers-Branch type and Balanced Type

Circulators as duplexers

Phased array Antennas Introduction, Basic concepts, Radiation Pattern

Beam steering and Beam width changes

Series vs parallel feeds

Applications, Advantages and Limitations

 Radar Receivers
• The receiver section is connected to the antenna by duplexer. The receiver section
is super heterodyne type and it consists of mixer, IF amplifier, detector and video
amplifier.
• The first stage of the receiver is usually an RF amplifier with very low noise
properties. The RF amplifier is followed by a mixer of fairly low noise figure.
• The mixer is a crystal diode which is fed to IF amplifier. The IF amplifier operates
at 30 or 60 MHz or at nearby frequency.
• IF stage provides most of the receiver gain. The IF amplifier should be a low noise
device to ensure that the overall noise figure of the receiver does not deteriorate to
great extent.
• The down conversion from microwave frequency to IF frequency may be done in
number of stages to ensure adequate image frequency suppression.
• The detector is crystal diode whose output is amplified by video amplifier having
the same bandwidth as the IF amplifier.
• The output signal is then fed to a display unit which may be a CRT.

Characteristics of radar receiver

• The function of the radar receiver is to detect desired echo signals in the presence of noise,
interference, or clutter.
• It must separate wanted from unwanted signals, and amplify the wanted signals to a level
where target information can be displayed to an operator or used in an automatic data
processor.
• The design of the radar receiver will depend not only on the type of waveform to be detected,
but on the nature of the noise, interference, and clutter echoes with which the desired echo
signals must compete.
• Noise can enter the receiver via the antenna terminals along with the desired signals, or it
might be generated within the receiver itself. At the microwave frequencies usually used for
radar, the external noise which enters via the antenna is generally quite low. The measure of
receiver internal noise is the noise-figure.
• Good receiver design is based on maximizing the output signal-to-noise ratio. To maximize
the output signal-to-noise ratio, the receiver must be designed as a matched filter, or its
equivalent. The matched filter specifies the frequency response function of the IF part of the
radar receiver.
• Obviously, the receiver should be designed to generate as little internal noise as possible,
especially in the input stages where the desired signals are the weakest.
• Receiver design also must be concerned with achieving sufficient gain, phase, and amplitude
stability, dynamic range, tuning, ruggedness, and simplicity.
• Protection must be provided against overload or saturation, and burnout from nearby
interfering transmitters. Timing and reference signals are needed to properly extract target
information.
• Timing and reference signals are needed to properly extract target information. Specific
applications such as MTI radar, tracking radar, or radars designed to minimize clutter place
special demands on the receiver.
• Receivers that must operate with a transmitter whose frequency can drift need some means of
automatic frequency control (AFC).
• Radars that encounter hostile counter-measures need receivers that can minimize the effects
of such interference.
• Thus there can be many demands placed upon the receiver designer in meeting the
requirements of modern high-quality radar systems.
• Although the super regenerative, crystal video and tuned radio frequency (TRF) receivers
have been employed in radar systems, the superheterodyne has seen almost exclusive
application because of its good sensitivity, high gain, selectivity, and reliability. No other
receiver type has been competitive to the superheterodyne.

Receiver Noise Figure

• Equation above permits two different but equivalent interpretations of noise figure.

• It may be considered as the degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio caused by the

network (receiver), or it may be interpreted as the ratio of the actual available
output noise power to the noise power which would be available if the network
merely amplified the thermal noise.

• The noise figure may also be written

• where ΔN is the additional noise introduced by the network itself. The noise figure
is commonly expressed in decibels, that is, 10 log Fn . The term noise factor is also
used at times instead of noise figure. The two terms are synonymous.

Noise figure of networks in cascade

• Consider two networks in cascade, each with the same noise bandwidth Bn but with
different noise figures and available gain (Fig).
• Let F1, G1 be the noise figure and available gain, respectively, of the first network,
and F2, G2 be similar parameters for the second network.
• The problem is to find Fo, the overall noise-figure of the two circuits in cascade.

• From the definition of noise figure the output noise No of the two circuits in
cascade is
No= FoG1G2kT0Bn =Noise from network 1 at output of network2+ Noise
ΔN2 introduced by network2
• The contribution of the second network to the overall noise-figure may be made
negligible if the gain of the first network is large. This is of importance in the
design of multistage receivers.
• It is not sufficient that only the first stage of a low-noise receiver have a small
noise figure.
• The succeeding stage must also have a small noise figure, or else the gain of the
first stage must be high enough to swamp the noise of the succeeding stage if the
first network is not an amplifier but is a network with loss (as in a crystal mixer),
the gain GI should be interpreted as a number less than unity.
• Extending the same method, the noise figure of N networks in cascade may be
shown to be:

Noise temperature
• The noise introduced by a network may also be expressed as an effective Noise
temperature, Te defined as that (fictional) temperature at the input of the network
which would account for the noise ΔN at the output. Therefore ΔN = kTe B0 G
and

• The system noise temperature Ts is defined as the effective noise temperature of

the receiver system including the effects of antenna temperature Ta. (It is also
sometimes called the system operating noise temperature) If the receiver effective
noise temperature is Te, then

• where Fs is the system noise-figure including the effect of antenna temperature.

The effective noise temperature of a receiver consisting of a number of networks in
cascade is
 where Ti and Gi , are the effective noise temperature and gain of the ith network.

• The effective noise temperature and the noise figure both describe the same
characteristic of a network. In general, the effective noise temperature has been
preferred for describing low-noise devices, and the noise figure is preferred for
conventional receivers.

Displays-Types
• The purpose of the display is to visually present the information contained in the
radar echo signal in a form suitable for operator interpretation and action.
• When the display is connected directly to the video output of the receiver, the
information displayed is called raw video. This is the "traditional” type of radar
presentation.
• When the receiver video output is first processed by an automatic detector or
automatic detection and tracking processor (ADT), the output displayed is
sometimes called synthetic video.
• The cathode-ray tube (CRT) has been almost universally used as the radar display.
There are two basic cathode-ray tube displays. One is the dejection-modulated
CRT, such as the A-scope, in which a target is indicated by the deflection of the
electron beam.
• The other is the intensity modulated CRT, such as the PPI, in which a target is
indicated by intensifying the electron beam and presenting a luminous spot on the
face of the CRT.
• In general, deflection-modulated displays have the advantage of simpler circuits
than those of intensity- modulated displays, and targets may be more readily
discerned in the presence of noise or interference.
• On the other hand, intensity-modulated displays have the advantage of presenting
data in a convenient and easily interpreted form.
• The deflection of the beam or the appearance of an intensity-modulated spot on a
radar display caused by the presence of a target is commonly referred to as a blip.
Types of display presentations: The various types of CRT displays which might be
used for surveillance and tracking radars are defined as follows:
• A-scope: A deflection-modulated display in which the vertical deflection is
proportional to target echo strength and the horizontal coordinate is proportional to
range.
• B-scope: An intensity-modulated rectangular display with azimuth angle indicated
by the horizontal coordinate and range by the vertical coordinate.
• C-scope: An intensity-modulated rectangular display with azimuth angle indicated
by the horizontal coordinate and elevation angle by the vertical coordinate.

• D-scope: A C-scope in which the blips extend vertically to give a rough estimate of
distance.

• E-scope: An intensity-modulated rectangular display with distance indicated by

the horizontal coordinate and elevation angle by the vertical coordinate. Similar to
the RHI in which target height or altitude is the vertical coordinate.

• F-Scope: A rectangular display in which a target appears as a centralized blip

when the radar antenna is aimed at it. Horizontal and vertical aiming errors are
respectively indicated by the horizontal and vertical displacement of the blip.

• G-Scope: A rectangular display in which a target appears as a laterally centralized

blip when the radar antenna is aimed at it in azimuth, and wings appear to grow on
the pip as the distance to the target is diminished; horizontal and vertical aiming
errors are respectively indicated by horizontal and vertical displacement of the
blip.

• H-scope: A B-scope modified to include indication of angle of elevation. The

target appears as two closely spaced blips which approximate a short bright line,
the slope of which is in proportion to the sine of the angle of target elevation.
• I-scope: A display in which a target appears as a complete circle when the radar
antenna is pointed at it and in which the radius of the circle is proportional to
target distance; incorrect aiming of the antenna changes the circle to a segment
whose arc length is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the pointing error,
and the position of the segment indicates the reciprocal of the pointing direction of
the antenna.
• J-scope: A modified A-scope in which the time base is a circle and targets appear
as radial deflections from the time base.
• K-scope: A modified A-scope in which a target appears as a pair of vertical
deflections. When the radar antenna is correctly pointed at the target, the two
deflections are of equal height, and when not so pointed, the difference in
deflection amplitude is an indication of the direction and magnitude of the
pointing error.
• L-scope: A display in which a target appears as two horizontal blips, one
extending to the right from a central vertical time base and the other to the left;
both blips are of equal amplitude when the radar is pointed directly at the target,
any inequality representing relative pointing error, and distance upward along the
baseline representing target distance.

• M-scope: A type of A-scope in which the target distance is determined by moving

an adjustable pedestal signal along the baseline until it coincides with the
horizontal position of the target signal deflections; the control which moves the
pedestal is calibrated in distance.
• N-scope: A K-scope having an adjustable pedestal signal, as in the M-scope, for the
measurement of distance.
• O-scope: An A-scope modified by the inclusion of an adjustable notch for
measuring distance.
• PPI or Plan Position Indicator (also called P-scope): An intensity-modulated
circular display on which echo signals produced from reflecting objects are shown
in plan position with range and azimuth angle displayed in polar (rho-theta)
coordinates, forming a map-like display. An offset, or off center, PPI has the zero
position of the time base at a position other than at the center of the display to
provide the equivalent of a larger display for a selected portion of the service area.
A delayed PPI is one in which the initiation of the time base is delayed.
• R-scope: An A-scope with a segment of the time base expanded near the blip for
greater accuracy in distance measurement.
• RHI or Range-Height Indicator: An intensity modulated display with height
(altitude) as the vertical axis and range as the horizontal axis.
• PPI, A-scope, B-scope, and RHI are among the more usual displays employed in
radar.
 Duplexers
The duplexer is the device that 1) switches the radar antenna to either
transmitter or the receiver 2) serves to protect the receiver from burnout or damage
during the transmission.

Branch type Duplexer

Figure : Principle of branch-type duplexer

• The branch-type duplexer, shown in above Fig is one of the earliest duplexer configurations.
It consists of a TR (transmit-receive) switch and an ATR (anti-transmit receive) switch, both
of which are gas-discharge tubes.
• When the transmitter is turned on, the TR and the ATR tubes ionize; that is, they break down,
or fire. The TR in the fired condition acts as a short circuit to prevent transmitter power from
entering the receiver.
• Since the TR is located a quarter wavelength from the main transmission line, it appears as a
short circuit at the receiver but as an open circuit at the transmission line so that it does not
impede the flow of transmitter power.
• Since the ATR is displaced a quarter wavelength from the main transmission line, the short
circuit it produces during the fired condition appears as an open circuit on the transmission
line and thus has no effect on transmission.
• During reception, the transmitter is off and neither the TR nor the ATR is fired.
• The open circuit of the ATR, being a quarter wave from the transmission line, appears as a
short circuit across the line.
• Since this short circuit is located a quarter wave from the receiver branch line, the transmitter
is effectively disconnected from the line and the echo signal power is directed to the receiver.
• The branch-type duplexer is of limited bandwidth and power handling capability, and has
generally been replaced by the balanced duplexer and other protection devices. It is used,
inspite of these limitations, in some low-cost radars.
• Balanced duplexer

Figure : Balanced duplexer using dual TR tubes and two short-slot hybrid junctions.
(a) Transmit Condition (b) Receive condition.

• The balanced duplexer is based on the short-slot hybrid junction which consists of two
sections of waveguides joined along one of their narrow walls with a slot cut in the common
narrow wall to provide coupling between the two.
• The short-slot hybrid may be considered as a broadband directional coupler with a coupling
ratio of 3 dB.
• In the transmit condition (Figure a) power is divided equally into each waveguide by the first
short slot hybrid junction. Both TR tubes break down and reflect the incident power out the
antenna arm as shown.
• The short-slot hybrid has the property that each time the energy passes through the slot in
either direction, its phase is advanced 90 0. Therefore, the energy travels as indicated by the
solid lines.
• Any energy which leaks through the TR tubes (shown by the dashed lines) is directed to the
arm with the matched dummy load and not to the receiver. In addition to the attenuation
provided by the TR tubes, the hybrid junctions provide an additional 20 to 30 dB of isolation.
• On reception the TR tubes are unfired and the echo signals pass through the duplexer and into
the receiver as shown in Fig.6b. The power splits equally at the first junction and because of
the 900 phase advance on passing through the slot, the energy recombines in the receiving arm
and not in the dummy-load arm.
• The power-handling capability of the balanced duplexer is inherently greater than that of the
branch-type duplexer and it has wide bandwidth, over ten percent with proper design. A
receiver protector, is usually inserted between the duplexer and the receiver for added
protection.
 Balanced duplexer using ATR tubes.
(a) Transmit condition (b) receive condition

CIRCULATORS AS DUPLEXERS
CIRCULATOR AND RECEIVER PROTECTOR
• The ferrite circulator is a three or four-port device that can in principle, offer
separation of the transmitter and receiver without the need for the conventional
duplexer configurations explained earlier.

• The circulator does not provide sufficient protection by itself and requires a
receiver protector like duplexers.

• The isolation between the transmitter and receiver ports of a circulator is seldom
sufficient to protect the receiver from damage.

• However, it is not the isolation between transmitter and receiver ports that usually
determines the amount of transmitter power at the receiver, but the impedance
mismatch at the antenna which reflects transmitter power back into the receiver.

• The VSWR is a measure of the amount of power reflected by the antenna. For
example, a VSWR of 1.5 means that about 4 percent of the transmitter power will
be reflected by the antenna mismatch in the direction of the receiver, which
corresponds to an isolation of only 14 dB. About 11 percent of the power is
reflected when the VSWR is 2.0, corresponding to less than 10 dB of isolation.
Thus, a receiver protector is almost always required.
• It also reduces to safe level radiations from nearby transmitters.
• The receiver protector might use solid-state diodes for an all solid-state
configuration, or it might be a passive TR-limiter consisting of a radioactive primed
TR-tube followed by a diode limiter.
• The ferrite circulator with receiver protector is attractive for radar applications
because of its long life, wide bandwidth, and compact design.

Figure : circulator and receiver protector. A four-port circulator is shown with the fourth port terminated in
a matched load to provide greater isolation between the transmitter and the receiver than provided by a
three-port circulator

Introduction to phased array antennas

• The phased array is a directive antenna made up of individual radiating antennas, or
elements, which generate a radiation pattern whose shape and direction is
determined by the relative phases and amplitudes of the currents at the individual
elements.
• By properly varying the relative phases it is possible to steer the direction of the
radiation.
• The radiating elements might be dipoles open-ended waveguides, slots cut in
waveguide, or any other type of antenna.
• Became of interest to Radar due to the inherent flexibility it has offered in steering
the beam by means of electronic control rather than by physical movement of the
antenna.
• It has been considered in those radar applications where it is necessary to shift the
beam rapidly from one position in space to another, or where it is required to obtain
information about many targets at a flexible, rapid data rate.
• The full potential of a phased-array antenna requires the use of a computer that can
determine in real time, on the basis of the actual operational situation, how best to
use the capabilities offered by the array.
 • Initially In World War 2, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany used radar
with fixed phased-array antennas in which the beam was scanned by mechanically
actuated phase shifters.

• A major advance in phased array technology was made in the early 1950s with the
replacement of mechanically actuated phase shifters by electronic phase shifters.

• Frequency scanning in one angular coordinate was the first successful electronic
scanning technique to be applied.

• The introduction of digitally switched phase shifters employing either ferrites or

diodes in the early 1960s made a significant improvement in the practicality of
phased arrays that could be electronically steered in two orthogonal angular
coordinates.

Basic concept
• An array antenna consists of a number of individual radiating elements suitably
spaced with respect to one another.

• Two common geometrical forms of array antennas used in radar are the linear array
and the planar array.

Linear array

• A linear array consists of elements arranged in a straight line in one dimension.

• The linear array generates a fan beam when the phase relationships are such that
the radiation is perpendicular to the array.

• When the radiation is at some angle other than broadside, the radiation pattern is a
conical-shaped beam.

• The linear array can also act as a feed for a parabolic-cylinder antenna.
Planar array

• A planar array is a two dimensional configuration of elements arranged to lie in a

plane. The planar array may be thought of as a linear array of linear arrays.

• The two-dimensional planar array is the most commonly used in radar applications
since it is fundamentally the most versatile of all radar antennas.

• A rectangular aperture can produce a fan shaped beam. A square or a circular

aperture produces a pencil beam.

• The array can be made to simultaneously generate many search and/or tracking
beams with the same aperture.

Broadside array

• A broadside array is one in which the direction of maximum radiation is

perpendicular, or almost perpendicular to the line (or plane) of the array.

• The broadside linear-array antenna may be used where broad coverage in one plane
and narrow beam width in the orthogonal plane are desired.

End fire
• An end fire array has its maximum radiation parallel to the array.
• The end fire array is a special case of the linear or the planar array when the beam
is directed along the array.
• End fire linear arrays have not been widely used in radar applications.
• They are usually limited to low or medium gains since an end fire linear antenna of
high gain requires an excessively long array.
• Small end fire arrays are sometimes used as the radiating elements of a broadside
array if directive elements are required.
Other types of array antennas
• An array whose elements are distributed on a non planar surface is called a
conformal array.
• An array in which the relative phase shift between elements is controlled by
electronic devices is called an electronically scanned array.
• In an electronically scanned array the antenna elements, the transmitters, the
receivers, and the data-processing portions of the radar are often designed as a unit.
 Radiation pattern
• Consider a linear array made up of N elements equaIIy spaced a distance d apart as
shown in Fig.

Figure : N-element linear array.

• The elements are assumed to be isotropic point sources radiating uniformly in all
directions with equal amplitude and phase.

• The outputs of all the elements are summed via lines of equal length to give a sum
output voltage Ea.
• Element 1 will be taken as the reference signal with zero phase. The difference in
the phase of the signals in adjacent elements is Ψ = 2π (d/λ) sin θ, where θ is the
direction of the incoming radiation.
• It is further assumed that the amplitudes and phases of the signals at each element
are weighted uniformly. Therefore the amplitudes of the voltages in each element
are the same and, for convenience, will be taken to be unity.
• The sum of all the voltages from the individual elements, when the phase difference
between adjacent elements is Ψ, can be written as

where ω is the angular frequency of the signal. The sum can be written as
• The first factor is a sine wave of frequency ω with a phase shift (N - 1) ψ/2. The
second term represents the amplitude factor of the form sin (Nψ/2)/sin (ψ/2). The
field intensity pattern is the magnitude of the equation 2 , or

• The pattern has nulls whenever the numerator is zero.

• NΠ(d/λ)sinθ = 0, ± Π, ± 2Π..., ± nΠ, where n = integer. The denominator,

however, is zero when Π (d/λ) sinθ, = 0, ± Π, ± 2Π..., ± nΠ. Note that when the
denominator is zero, the numerator is also zero.

• The value of the field intensity pattern is indeterminate when both the
denominator and numerator are zero. However, by applying L'Hopital's rule
(differentiating numerator and denominator separately) it is found that |Ea |is a
maximum whenever sinθ = ± nλ/d.

• These maxima all have the same value and are equal to N. The maximum at
sinθ = 0 defines the main beam. The other maxima are called grating lobes. They
are generally undesirable and are to be avoided.

• The radiation pattern is equal to the normalized square of the amplitude, or

• When directive elements are used, the resultant array antenna radiation pattern is

• where Ge (θ) is the radiation pattern of an individual element. The resultant

radiation pattern is the product of the element factor Ge(θ) and the array factor
Ga(θ).
• Grating lobes caused by a widely spaced array may therefore be eliminated with
directive elements which radiate little or no energy in the directions of the
undesired lobes.
• For example, when the element spacing d = 2λ, grating lobes occur at θ = ±30° and
±90° in addition to the main beam at θ = 0°. If the individual elements have a
beamwidth somewhat less than 60°, the grating lobes of the array factor will be
suppressed.
• In a two-dimensional, rectangular planar array, the radiation pattern may sometimes be
written as the product of the radiation patterns in the two planes which contain the
principal axes of the antenna.
• If the radiation patterns in the two principal planes are G1(θe) and G2(θa) the two-
dimensional antenna pattern is

• Thus, the normalized radiation pattern of a uniformly illuminated rectangular array is

• Where N = number of radiating elements in θa dimension with spacing d and M the

number in θe dimension.

Beam steering phased array antennas

• The beam of an array antenna may be steered rapidly in space without moving
large mechanical masses by properly varying the phase of the signals applied to
each element.

• Consider an array of equally spaced elements. The spacing between adjacent

elements is d, and the signals at each element are assumed to be of equal
amplitude.

• If the same phase is applied to all elements, the relative phase difference between
adjacent elements is zero and the position of the main beam will be broadside to
the array at an angle θ = 0.

• The main beam will point in a direction other than broadside if the relative phase
difference between elements is other than zero.

• The direction of the main beam is at an angle θ0, when the phase difference is Ø =
2π (d/λ) sin θ0. The phase at each element is therefore (Øc + m Ø) where m = 0,
1,2. . . (N - I) and Øc is any constant phase applied to all elements.
• The normalized radiation pattern of the array when the phase difference between
adjacent elements is Ø is given by:

• The maximum of the radiation pattern occurs when sin θ= sin θ0

• The above Equation states that the main beam of the antenna pattern may be
positioned to an angle θ0 by the insertion of the proper phase shift Ø at each
element of the array. If variable, rather than fixed, phase shifters are used, the
beam may be steered as the relative phase between elements is changed

FIG: Steering of an antenna beam with variable phase shifters (parallel-

fed array).

• Using an argument similar to the non scanning array described previously, grating
lobes appear at an angle θg whenever the denominator is zero, or when

or

• If a grating lobe is permitted to appear at -900 when the main beam is steered to
+90°, it is found from the above that d = λ/2.

• Thus the element spacing must not be larger than a half wavelength if the beam is
to be steered over a wide angle without having undesirable grating lobes appear.

• Practical array antennas do not scan +/- 90°. If the scan is limited to +/- 600 the
element spacing should be less than 0.54λ.
 Change of beam width with steering angle
• The half-power beam width in the plane of scan increases as the beam is scanned
off the broadside direction. The beam width is approximately inversely
proportional to cos θ0, where θ0 is the angle measured from the normal to the
antenna.
• This may be proved by assuming that the sine in the denominator of G(θ)
discussed earlier can be replaced by its argument, so that the radiation pattern is of
the form(sin2u)/u2, where u = NΠ (d/λ)(sinθ - sinθo).
• The (sin2u)/u2 antenna pattern is reduced to half its maximum value when u = ±
0.443Π. Denote by θ+ the angle corresponding to the half-power point when θ > θo
, and θ- , the angle corresponding to the half-power point when θ <θo; that is, θ+
corresponds to u = +0.443Π and θ- to u = -0.443Π.
• The sinθ - sinθo, term in the expression for u can be written

• The second term on the right-hand side of Eq. above can be neglected when θo
is small (beam is near broadside), so that

• Using the above approximation, the two angles corresponding to the 3-dB points of
the antenna pattern are

• The half-power beamwidth is

• Therefore, when the beam is positioned an angle θo off broadside, the beamwidth in
the plane of scan increases as (cos θo) -1.
• The variation of the beam shape with scan angle is graphically shown in Fig below.

• The antenna radiation pattern is plotted in spherical coordinates as a function of the two
direction cosines, cos αx and cos αy of the radius vector specifying the point of
observation.

• The angle Ø is measured from the cos αx axis, and θ is measured from the axis
perpendicular to the cos αx and cos αy axes.
• In Fig. Ø is taken to be a constant value of 900 and the beam is scanned in the θ
coordinate.

• At θ= 0 (beam broad side to the array) a symmetrical pencil beam of half-power width
B0 is assumed.

• The shape of the beam at the other angular positions is the projection of the circular
beam shape on the surface of the unit sphere.

• It can be seen that as the beam is scanned in the θ direction, it broadens in that direction,
but is constant in the Ø direction.

• For θ≠0, the beam shape is not symmetrical about the center of the beam, but is
eccentric.

Beam width and eccentricity of the scanned beam

 Applications of phased array antennas
The phased array antenna has seen application in radar for a wide variety of purposes:
• Aircraft surveillance from on board ship
• Satellite surveillance
• Ballistic missile defense
• Air defense
• Aircraft landing systems
• Mortar and artillery location
• Tracking of ballistic missiles and Airborne bomber radar (EAR).
• Many developmental array radars have been developed and built in USA.
Although much effort and funds have been spent on this activity, except for
limited-scan arrays there has not been any large serial production of such radars
compared to the serial production of radars with mechanically rotating reflector
antennas.

Advantages phased array antennas.

• Inertialess rapid beam-steering: The beam from an array can be scanned, or
switched from one position to another, in a time limited only by the switching speed
of the phase shifters. Typically, the beam can be switched in several microseconds,
but it can be considerably shorter if desired.

• Multiple, independent beams: A single aperture can generate many simultaneous

independent beams. Alternatively, the same effect can be obtained by rapidly
switching a single beam through a sequence of positions.

• Potential for large peak and / or average power: If necessary, each element of
the array can be fed by a separate high-power transmitter with the combining of the
outputs made in space to obtain a total power greater than can be obtained from a
single transmitter.
• Control of the radiation pattern. A particular radiation pattern may be more
readily obtained with the array than with other microwave antennas since the
amplitude and phase of each array element may be individually controlled. Thus,
radiation patterns with extremely low side lobes or with a shaped main beam may
be achieved conveniently. Separate monopulse sum and difference patterns, each
with it’s own optimum shape, can also be generated.

• Graceful degradation. The distributed nature of the array means that it can fail
only gradually and not l at once (catastrophically).

• Convenient aperture shape. The shape of the array permits flush mounting and it
can be strengthened to resist blast.

• Electronic beam stabilization. The ability to steer the beam electronically can be
used to stabilize the beam direction when the radar is on an unstable platform,
such as a ship or aircraft that is subject to roll, pitch, and yaw disturbances.

Limitations of phased array antennas

1. The major limitation that has limited the widespread use of the conventional
phased array in radar is its high cost, which is due in large part to its complexity.

2. When graceful degradation has gone too far a seperate maintenance is needed.

3. When a planar array is electronically scanned, the change of mutual coupling that
accompanies a change in beam position makes the maintenance of low sidelobes
more difficult.

4. Although the array has the potential for radiating large power, it is seldom that an
array is required to radiate more power than can be radiated by other antenna types
or to utilize a total power which cannot possibly be generated by current high-
power microwave tube technology that feeds a single transmission line.
 Series Vs Parallel feeds
• The phase relationship between the adjacent elements of the array can be obtained
with either series fed or parallel fed arrangement.
• In series fed arrangement, the energy may be transmitted from one end to the line or
it may be fed from the center out to each end.
• The adjacent elements are connected by a phase shifter with phase ϕ.
• All the phase shifters are identical and introduce the same amount of phase shift
which is less than 2Π radians.
• In parallel fed the energy to be radiated is divided between the elements by a power
splitter.
• When a series of power splitters are used to create a tree like structure is called a
corporate feed.
• Equal lengths of line transmit the energy to each element so that no unwanted phase
difference are introduced by the lines themselves.
• The maximum phase change required of each phase shifter in the parallel-fed array
is many times 2Π radians.

• In a series-fed array containing N phase shifters, the signal suffers the insertion loss
of a single phase shifter N times. In a parallel-fed array the insertion loss of the p h
s e shifter is introduced effectively but once.

• Since each phase shifter in the series-fed linear array of below Fig has the same
value of phase shift, only a single control signal is needed to steer the beam. The N-
element parallel-fed linear array similar to that of below Fig requires a separate
control signal for each phase shifter or N - 1 total.

Parallel Feed
Series arrangements for applying phase relationships in an array.
(a) fed from one end; (b) center-fed.